Football Federation Australia (FFA) today announced that former Hyundai A-League and AFC Referee of the Year Mark Shield has been appointed as the new FFA Director of Referees as part of the national body’s new Referee Development structure.

Arguably the most successful and well respected Australian match official in world football, Mark has officiated at all levels of the game from junior grassroots, to the former National Soccer League, Hyundai A-League, Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League, AFC Asian Cup and FIFA World Cups.

Players are yet to fully use the pathway to higher levels of the game that the Hyundai QSL offers. However, match official Sam Williams is racing along this road to the top.

Williams has been making progress under the watchful eye of local senior referee co-ordinator Barry Such, moving from the local competition and into the higher quality State competition smoothly.

Now Williams is set to take charge of his biggest match at the weekend when he is the man in the middle for the first match of the QSL finals series when the Daily Mercury Whitsunday Miners face Gold Coast Stars.

A new management structure that aims to deliver continued success of national teams, sustainable growth of the Hyundai A-League and better engagement with football's grassroots was announced today by Football Federation Australia (FFA) CEO Ben Buckley.

The new structure will streamline FFA's core functions following the conclusion of the FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup bid projects. At the same time, FFA has begun the process of building the team that will deliver the AFC Asian Cup in 2015.

AusRef has been on Facebook for a while now, but with the recent extra functionality available we're really starting to embrace this as a great new way to enhance what AusRef can offer.

You can head to our page at www.facebook.com/AusRef or use the widget below. You can become a fan and get updates of important referee-related news - join the 120 fans we already had at the time of writing! We're still working on content and over time you'll see more integration with the main AusRef site, but feel free to comment us with any more suggestions!

The German sportswear companies Puma and Adidas are to end a feud started 60 years ago by their founding brothers.

Adi and Rudolf Dassler started making sports shoes together in their mother's wash-room in the 1920s. They fell out during World War II, probably over political differences, and founded firms on either side of a river in southern Germany.

On Monday 21 September, employees of both companies will shake hands and then play a football match.